How to analyze user behavior on the site using Microsoft Clarity

The advertising campaign is launched, but the CR values do not meet the plan and you do not know the reason for the low ad conversion? Try observing user behavior on the website using Microsoft Clarity.

Microsoft Clarity is a free and powerful web analytics tool that provides valuable insights into visitor behavior, allowing owners and developers to improve their websites. It offers in-depth information about user interactions, such as click heatmaps and session replays, which show which parts of your site are most or least engaging. By using these features, you can identify potential issues, optimize conversions, and enhance overall user engagement.

Today, there are many analytics tools available on the market. If you are looking for a tool to collect detailed data about your site, you can find many alternatives to Microsoft Clarity. However, when using such tools, you will definitely encounter issues: distorted data curves, interpretation of results, and difficulty implementing them on websites. Most programs of this kind do not integrate well with Google Analytics.

What Makes Microsoft Clarity Unique and How Can It Improve Website Interaction?

Just like in Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity allows you to view the total number of sessions, users, page load times, pages per session, and bounce rates. You also have the ability to filter and view data by country, browser, operating system, entry or exit URL.

The data that Clarity provides to website owners and marketers includes:

• Replays of individual sessions
• Advanced filtering system.
• Visual heatmaps that clearly demonstrate user interaction 
• A dashboard for an overall view of user interactions

Dashboard

The main Clarity dashboard displays session metrics, traffic sources, and charts that show user behavior. Additionally, it provides advanced filters that allow you to search by more detailed parameters, such as cursor movement, operating systems, and modified page sizes.

Moreover, Clarity allows you to create an unlimited number of custom tags – individual filters that simplify the search for specific sessions for review. Custom tags are especially useful when you need to:

• Identify conversions, such as form submissions and purchases
• Track heatmaps and session recordings for specific users
• Track user logins on specific pages, their actions, and the time they exit the page or navigate to another page.

Interaction complexity metrics

Rage clicks occur when a user rapidly clicks on the same area multiple times. This may indicate a frustrating website interface, irrelevant information regarding the query, or poor or misleading visual design.

Dead clicks happen when a user clicks on an element, but no transition occurs. This may result from improperly configured links.

Excessive scrolling is observed when a user scrolls the page up and down at a higher frequency than usual. This may indicate poor visibility or inappropriate content.

Quick backs occur when a user visits a page and quickly returns to the previous one. This may be caused by misinterpretation of icons or content descriptions.

Session Replays (SESSION REPLAYS)

The “Recordings” tab provides access to session replay views. In addition to tracking cursor movement and clicks, replays include information such as entry and exit URLs, session duration, data, and devices used.

Clarity also has a “Skip inactivity” feature that allows viewing (or excluding) periods when users are inactive on the site, significantly saving time when reviewing multiple sessions.

Heatmaps

Click maps show which content on your page is important to users and how they interact with the page. They display a heat gradient of colors: warm shades indicate more popular areas, while cooler shades indicate less popular sections.

There are three types of heatmaps available in Clarity:

Click heatmaps display where users clicked on the website page.

Tap heatmaps demonstrate where users tapped on the website pages using mobile devices and tablets.

Scroll heatmaps show how far users scrolled down the page.

Click and tap heatmaps help identify engaging content and serve as a basis for comparing iterations. They can also reveal elements that users mistakenly think are interactive, such as images containing a specific button.

With the scroll heatmap, you can hover over a specific section of the page to see the percentage of users who reached that point. Scroll heatmaps also indicate the average change – the area at the top of the page that users see before scrolling. Dashboard filters can also be used on the “Records” and “Heatmaps” tabs.

How to Set Up Microsoft Clarity 

To set up Microsoft Clarity, the same process is followed as for Google Analytics, by adding a script with the tracking code to the website page. The installation process is quite easy, and you can also use Google Tag Manager.

After creating a new project, you specify the name, domain, and category of your site, and you arrive at a page with tracking code and detailed installation instructions.

Within 30 minutes after successfully installing Microsoft Clarity, you can observe visitor interactions with your site. All data automatically appears in your profile.

Clarity is a completely free tool for any site, regardless of traffic volume at the time of installation. This tool can be used for both a new site with a few visitors per day and a popular one with thousands of visitors daily. It is important to note that Clarity is designed to minimize the impact on page load speed, so your users won’t have to wait long.

Integrating Microsoft Clarity with Google Analytics

Integrating these services allows you to reveal convenient links to session playback directly in your Google Analytics report. This enables you to navigate to Clarity from analytics reports and view user interactions, especially for those who dropped off at a certain stage in the funnel. This provides an opportunity to analyze their behavior and identify pain points.

The integration is quite easy to set up, and there is a detailed process described in Microsoft’s documentation. 

Key Steps:

Step 1. Connect your Google Analytics working account in Clarity settings. Ensure that the connection is active. If not, activate it.

Step 2. In the Google Analytics account admin menu, create a custom parameter:

Variable configuration:

• Name: Clarity Playback URL.
• Scope: Session.
• Active.

After this, the data will start flowing into the created Google Analytics parameter from the Clarity JavaScript code you added to your site.

Conclusion

You may notice some similarities between the platforms, but Google Analytics and Clarity cannot be competitors; they only complement each other. Google Analytics measures traffic volume and the effectiveness of various metrics, including goal achievement rates. Clarity also tracks similar metrics but additionally allows you to trace the actual movement and interaction of users with your site.

I believe that Clarity provides quite important data to pay attention to this tool. Analyzing customer behavior on the site allows you to view your business from a new perspective – through the eyes of customers – and helps address local issues. This is significantly more effective than constantly increasing and draining the budget to attract users through paid channels. That’s why I recommend using this tool alongside Google Analytics.